Every time I read a news article that talks about someone else’s misfortune, I worry about insurance. When I read about a person who has gone into bankruptcy due to bills that an insurance company refused to pay, I feel bad for that person, and I worry about what I would do in the same situation. Often, while surfing the internet, I find news articles that predict that the cost of insurance is going to rise in the next few years. This makes me worry about my own ability to afford insurance, of any kind.
It turns out that I am not the only one with these kinds of worries running through my head. Millions of adults are worried about the cost of medical care, and the cost of health insurance, according to an article I read recently. Does insurance top your list of worries, too?
Just thinking about insurance can quickly make a person overwhelmed. There are so many kinds to research! There’s health insurance (which may, or may not, include dental and vision insurance), auto insurance, homeowners (or renters) insurance, life insurance, pet insurance, and more! Each insurance company is going to have a slightly different way of setting up a person with an insurance policy, and most will have more than one kind of policy to offer. This only adds to the confusion. I worry that I am paying too much for a policy, because I don’t really understand how to compare one policy to another.
I worry that my husband and I will never, ever, be able to afford to have health insurance. We don’t have any health insurance at all right now. In the back of my mind, I worry that if one of us ends up in the hospital we will end up bankrupt from the medical bills. Sometimes, I fear we will lose our home if we end up having to file for bankruptcy. I have gone so far as to research what it would take to become a citizen to a country that offers a national form of health care. It seems to me that unless we move out of the United States, or win the lottery, that each of us is just going to have to somehow stay perfectly healthy until we are both old enough to qualify for Medicare.
I worry that the car insurance we have will not really do us much good in the case of an accident. My car is old. Some idiot hit my parked car a few years ago, and the insurance company decided that the cost of repairing the car was more than the actual car was worth. The car is now on a “salvage title”, which makes me worry about what will happen if another idiot hits my car and damages it. We just paid for life insurance, but I still worry that the insurance company will choose to deny either me, or my husband, or both of us after the health questionnaire and exam is completed. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that most Americans are worried about insurance!
Image by ryemang on Flickr